Evaluation of a Regional Aircraft with Boundary Layer Ingestion and Electric-Fan Propulsor

Abstract

This paper presents a conceptual study of a regional aircraft with a turboelectric propulsion system and boundary-layer ingestion. The aircraft has an additional electric propulsor installed at the aircraft tail cone, which is driven by generators installed on both underwing engines, aiming to ingest the fuselage boundary layer and improve the aircraft overall performance. The proposed configuration is an aircraft reengining of the reference aircraft platform, the Embraer 175-E1, targeting minimizing airframe modifications. Parametric variations of the thrust split ratio as well as the electric fan pressure ratio were performed in order to create a design space of possible solutions for the proposed concept and also to provide insights of the aircraft key variables trends. From that, a feasible and optimized configuration in terms of efficiency was selected and compared to the reference aircraft. As the main conclusion, it was determined that the studied propulsion system has the potential to provide specific air range benefits in the order of 4 to 7%, which may not be enough to justify a new development.